Category Archives: Poetry

Never have met me, never do,
never be mine, never even be you,
approach from a point it’s impossible to
at a time you don’t have, and by these byelaws
come my way, go yours.

– Glyn Maxwell, Byelaws

I have always been one of those people that love magic, mostly up close and personal magic, sleight of hand, when something right in front of your eyes works perfectly even though you don’t know why. I get that warm feeling of satisfaction, a smile across my face because it worked and it’s beautiful in a way I can’t express. Even if I know how the trick is done, when it’s executed well it’s awesome in the original sense of the word because it clicks. It’s just like when you close a door and the latch clicks that satisfying sound so you know its shut.

It’s this same sort of thing that I love about poetry (and language on the whole). Yes you can analyse it and explain it to death, but truly beautiful poetry just fits, it clicks. A writer can show you words you recognise and create something new, explain something complex in a simple and satisfying way. It clicks in your mind, because it just works and fits so perfectly. To me, good writing isn’t about expression of an image or idea, because frankly anyone can express, we do it all day when we talk to each other. We express our experiences, our thoughts and opinions, but this is ordinary language. Extraordinary language is a complexly engineered construct of words, where expression, phonetics, connotation and, in fact, all aspects of the language fall into place and click.

An example that springs to mind when I talk about this clicking is a poem I read a while back by Glyn Maxwell. I had never heard much about him however I picked up the Forward Books of Poetry (Faber & Faber – either 2013 or 2014) and he was in there. This poem made me smile so much I had to read it aloud to anyone who would listen and an extract features at the top of this post.

This is where business is getting more exciting these days. With so many brands and businesses competing for the spotlight, for the likes, for the website hits, the retweets, follows, ratings and ultimately sales marketers have to use better, more creative and more engaging methods to attract attention. The internet means businesses can reach even more people and grow over geographical boundaries, the other side of the coin is there it’s near impossible to be a big fish in a small pond. The internet is a vast and angry sea and competition is fierce.

Yes, marketing has always had to be clever, and yes campaigns have been beautifully crafted before to have these clicks, but now we are seeing it literally all over the place. Small businesses have to play head to head with international corporations, global brands but with less manpower, less money and less time to invest. So to compete they have to be clever, they have to find other ways to appeal. So because of this you can see these clicks in advertising all over the place on the internet.

Design, branding, slogans have become slicker that it’s hard to draw the line between art and advertisement. But then again, does there need to be a line drawn? Marketing can be art, art with a purpose, with a goal, with a meaning; it should make you stop, think and smile. I hope I can bring this in my work. I love writing for pleasure and I love writing for business I just hope I can create clicks for other people the same way I experience them.